Louisiana opens tourney with Denver
<blockquote><p align=justify>BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Louisiana hopes to play the percentages this week in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
The Ragin’ Cajuns are 8-4 in the event under coach Jessie Evans, and have the top winning percentage in tournament history of .680 (17-8) since joining the Sun Belt in 1991-92.
Marty Fletcher coached the Cajuns to a pair of SBC titles in 1992 and 1994, and Evans brought the program back to the top in 2000 — all three earning the Sun Belt’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
The Cajuns won more games away from home (10) than any team in the league this season, including 8 on enemy floors and a pair of wins on neutral courts, so they seem well-equipped for the task at hand.
Their quest begins at 5:30 p.m. today against Denver at Western Kentucky’s E.A. Diddle Arena.
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Bruce Brown
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Winning today puts the Cajuns in Monday’s semifinals, with an eye toward the championship game on Tuesday.
“Any time you’re on the road, you hope you get the opportunity to play anyone for a championship,” said Evans, whose squad has to guard against the natural tendency to look ahead to a possible title game rematch with WKU.
“You also have to look at the history of the league. No host team has won the tournament (since 1991).”
The Cajuns found out today’s foe on Friday, when Denver roared back from a 35-30 halftime deficit to oust Arkansas State 82-76. Senior guard B.J. Pratt poured in 34 points, had 8 rebounds and 3 assists for the Pioneers.
“They stayed with what they do,” Evans said. “They played within themselves, they didn’t panic and Pratt had a great game.”
Remarkably, Denver won with center Brett Starkey limited to 7 points and with Erik Benzel netting just 2 points (both on free throws).
“They showed they’re a team,” Evans said. “They’ve got (other) capable players, just like we do. Starkey was still banging, still playing hard, and he came through for them in the second half.
“You get 3 or 4 points here and 3 or 4 points there, and have your main guy go off, and you’ll be all right.”
The Pioneers, who hit 26-of-34 free throws and out-rebounded ASU 39-31, took the Cajuns to overtime Feb. 11 in the Cajundome before Louisiana prevailed 72-69.
Starkey hit 8-of-11 shots and had 20 points for Denver in that game, supported by 17 from Benzel and 14 from Pratt. For the Cajuns, Laurie Bridges and Cedric Williams had 15 points apiece, Brad Boyd had 12 and Michael Southall 10.
Another close battle would not be a surprise.
“They defended us well and ran their offense in that game,” Evans said. “They were focused and disciplined and were able to get the shots that they wanted, no what you wanted them to take.
“Starkey and Benzel played better at our place (than Friday).”Denver won Friday for the first time in Sun Belt Tournament play after three years of first-round losses.
“The pressure is off of them,” Evans said. “But, the pressure was on us, anyway.”
The Cajuns have picked up the pace the last two days at the end of a long since the loss to WKU.
“I was pleased with yesterday, and the day before,” Evans said. “I’m disappointed that we had such a long layoff. We scrimmaged a lot more to work on some things, and make sure we had some things covered.”
Judging from the way B.J. Pratt took over Friday’s play-in game, they’ll want to make sure to have him covered, too.
“We know that to make it to the championship game we have to win two games,” Evans said. “Obviously, we have to recover from our loss to Western Kentucky, and try to get back on track.”
WKU halted the Cajuns’ 21-game home win streak with a 69-66 victory in the Cajundome on Feb. 26. The West Division champion Cajuns would love to get the chance to return the favor, but must take care of business first.
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Louisiana basketball on the Internet
Why the Cajuns are waitng on an NIT bid
I was reading on the sunbelts site and this loss cannot be pinned on coach Jessie Evans. Turnovers pop up in my mind as why we lost, but MISSED SHOTS was the killer. Brad Boyd shooting 7 of 18 and Laurie Bridges shooting 1 of 9. That is 18 mised shots between 2 guys. Going 3 of 18 from 3 point land is asking for a loss. Cajuns won on rebounds so that is not why we lost. Cajuns won on assists which is a statistic tied to turnovers so that is not why we lost. Fouls were the same so that is not why we lost. The reason the Cajuns lost was missed shots.
